Turn 24-25 West
I didn't have to wait long to see the relief force that Murtagks was sending for Butler.
- 65_Hooker.png (1.97 MiB) Viewed 14085 times
Hooker turned up with two divisions and took Ft St Phillip.
This brings Union forces in the theater to 6 divisions and 3.5 + heavy artillery for the Confederacy.
- 69_New Orleans.png (3.75 MiB) Viewed 14085 times
Despite the numerical advantage the Union has I am rather confident that I can still destroy Butler's army.
The Union forces are divided and must each attack my entrenched Army of the Mississippi to combine. I could inflict terrible casualties on them if they do.
Butler will grow weaker each turn. He may run out of supply (though New Orleans is very rich so he may not) but my heavy guns, of which I am sending more, will chip away at him each turn and he cannot be reinforced whilst under siege.
There is also the fact that moving through the Louisiana swamps is slow going and Hooker would take a while to reach the city unless he wants to risk meeting my ironclads on the river.
The only danger for the CSA is the possibility of Hooker slowly choking off ABS Johnston's supplies and so force him to abandon the siege. I know that if I move out of my entrenchments and lift the siege Butler can move out of the city and himself entrench there preventing me from ever retaking New Orleans. Naturally I want to avoid this outcome at almost any cost.
Therefore I have detached Hardee with the elite Texas brigade (that historically for in Virginia) to clear away the single card sailor units that are trying to establish control of the swamps around the city.
I will wait as long as necessary to force a surrender from Butler. This is my greatest strategic opportunity to crush a large Union force and then free up several, by then experienced, CSA divisions to redeploy to other fronts.
In the Far West I finally took Santa Fe
- 64_SantaFe.png (2.48 MiB) Viewed 14085 times
Not sure if it was worth it, but oh well I have it now.
In Missouri my cavalry and Indians are advancing towards Leavenworth. Meanwhile McCulloch moved adjacent to St Louis.
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Surprisingly Murtagks has stationed 1000 power in the city. McCulloch therefore has orders to retreat if he is engaged as I simply want to tie down Union forces with the threat of an attack. It would not be prudent to invest enough forces in MO to launch a significant attack on the city. In fact I still want to send unit cards produced in MO south to reinforce my other armies.
Finally the Upper Mississippi probably contains the greatest threat to the CSA. Murtagks has deployed both Grant and Sherman with 4 divisions between them to hi foothold here.
- 68_Upper Mississippi.png (3.98 MiB) Viewed 14085 times
Polk and Breckenridge have 3 divisions between them and I'll try to force the Union to attack by boxing Grant in. Unfortunately my gunboats need to be in the Lower Mississippi for the New Orleans theater, but I'll guard the river batteries in Ft Pillow and Memphis as best I can to at least obstruct any amphibious operations.
My other concern is that Kentucky is likely to join the Union shortly.Based on the overall force balance and count of Murtagk's troops I estimate that he may have 4 divisions preparing to march through Kentucky to threaten Nashville. I expect Freemont will be the overall commander as he had an Army command and recently vanished from VA, though McClellan Commanding would not surprise me either.
I am rapidly trying to build two divisions in Nashville under the Army Command of JE Johnston, but I may well have to trade space for time in Upper Tennessee. Forrest is at least ready with about 1 division of cavalry.
That will be the last post for a while as Murtagks needs to focus on some exams next week (I fortunately left the exam portion of my life behind a couple of years ago), but I hope we will resume our game next weekend.